The world, as we know it is changing, and due to the current digital transformations, the times are now volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. This change is impacting how products, services, processes, and systems are developed. The project management discipline and roles are also evolving with this new trend. Using experiences of some project management events attended, I will try to illuminate these changes and key capabilities that exist today in this field due to disruptive business model innovations and new digital technologies.
PROJECTUM a European-based Project management application company, on the 13th of March 2019, had a webinar titled “Effective Project Management Using Microsoft Teams”. This event presented the new features added in the Microsoft application called Teams to conduct virtual meetings successfully. There was a demonstration in the use of features on this application to schedule meetings, share documents, take notes, and record the whole event during a project meeting. The speaker moved to the use of tabs to add functionality during meetings. Tabs like PowerBI, OneNote, and Project Online were added by Microsoft to teams to increase functionality while in a virtual meeting. It ended with the demonstration of bots within the chat box to respond to chats or run polls during a meeting. As part of this webinar, the Microsoft tool for online workflow services was highlighted and its use to create classic workflows, auto-populate entities, create business logic, and integrations.
The knowledge of Microsoft teams is essential in this modern technologically driven society. A project manager needs to be comfortable using these tools to make virtual meetings productive and successful.
The Association for Project Management hosted a webinar delivered by Fiona Metcalfe, a Linguist, and psychologist titled "Dealing with conflict and difficult people." the project manager needs to play a leadership role while handling the project teams. It is vital to the success of a project for conflicts within the team to be appropriately handled, and those that might be difficult to get along with channeled productively. Conflict is ubiquitous and can be found in every facet of human interaction. This is also true within project teams. In recent times of technological disruption dealing with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity the need to manage conflict better becomes imperative. Conflict within a project team will manifest as different priorities, competition over scarce resources, objectives, and remote working patterns. Conflict can be functional or dysfunctional. In the dysfunctional form, it is destructive, harmful, stressful, and costly. It diverts energy, reduces productivity, increases tension, and keeps parties involved in the zone of negative conflict. While the functional conflict is constructive, it engages in open and honest dialogue, seeks a win-win outcome, and generates enhanced insight, understanding, and learning. This webinar went ahead to address the connection between perception of conflict and reaction. It also showed a flowchart from one's belief to the result of the conflict. To control one's emotions and react rationally to conflict, one needs to practice mindfulness. Understand how the body reacts to conflict, calm yourself by taking deep breaths before responding to actions, use open body language, relaxed voice, and try to understand each other better. It is also essential to use positive statements and try to find a solution that works for both parties. Despite your best efforts, we still have people that fall under the category of high-conflict individuals. They are preoccupied with blaming others, having all-or-nothing thinking, and having unmanaged emotions and extreme reactions. Do not bother with behavior-changing techniques.
It is crucial as a modern Project manager in an organization with a constantly changing environment to understand and practice these methods of conflict management to create the right work environment, save cost, and be productive.
"The Future of Project Management Technology" hosted by ADVISICON, a project management consulting firm highlighted the Microsoft Project Portfolio Management direction and digital transformation, new features, and capabilities, and touch on the dynamics on the horizon. Over the years, Microsoft has been improving its various platforms to keep up with trends in the environment and to help improve the execution of projects effectively and efficiently. MS Project Portfolio platform is best equipped to transform strategies into high-impact outcomes. Microsoft has continued to enhance the capabilities of its programs, and with the introduction of cloud technology, it can handle multiple projects at the same time. Microsoft PPM is designed to help ideate and develop project proposals that advance corporate strategy. It also selects effective portfolios, devises pragmatic project plans, orchestrates execution, and ensures performance and outcomes are on track. Microsoft project PPM harness cloud technology's power to incorporate other services and form a powerful PPM solution. This includes activities on platforms like Azure, PowerBI, Office 365, Planner, and Dynamics 365. Dynamic 365 deals with multiple elements. Microsoft is bringing the project/portfolio management power of MS projects and merging it with the dynamic power of resource management (e.g., sales, marketing, finance, customer service.), making it easier to go back and forth between these platforms while following the project cycle.
Understanding what is about to come, especially with project management technology and learning the use of these tools will help project managers stay ahead of the curve in modern project practices.
In an article published by Project Management Institute (PMI) titled "Success in disruptive times", Mark Langley, president of the organization, stated that too much money is wasted on poor project performance (PMI, 2018). He went ahead to back this statement up by quoting the 2019 Pulse of the Profession report, which showed that 12% of every dollar is wasted due to poor project performance, which accounts for about $99 million for every $ 1billion invested. The brightline initiative takes a global perspective on this issue, looking at the total global capital investment and concluding that around $1 million is wasted every 20 seconds, which amounts to $2 trillion every year. Effective project management to implement organizational strategies is critical as organizations that invest in proven project management practices continue to experience greater success and reduced waste in resources. Studies have shown that only 58% of organizations fully understand the value of project management, 93% of organizations reported using standardized project management practices, and one in three organizations report high benefits realization maturity. In its article "Trends in Project Management," International Project Management Association (IPMA) talked about the Projectification of Society (IPMA, 2018). Today project management is found in all parts of the industry, in public administration, education, and sports. The global trend of "projectification" that comprises all areas of professional and private life is ubiquitous. This implies that there is a growing need for project managers in whatever form to facilitate any project but also any change program or corporate strategic initiatives that are achieved using a Project Manager. Project managers are now more likely to be given portfolios to handle than a single entity, and most of these projects are tied to technology. Technology quotient is required by project managers to survive in this new environment. A technology quotient (TQ) is a person's ability to adapt, manage, and integrate technology based on the needs of the organization or project at hand. As we witnessed during this COVID 19 pandemic, the use of technology to conduct business has become more essential. Tools like those highlighted in the project management events summarized earlier (MS teams, MS projects, Power BI, Planner) becomes even more relevant. Your knowledge of these technological tools as a project manager is now more urgent, and companies that need to remain relevant in the digital era need to make a quick pivot.
It is expected that this era of digital transformation will continue to trigger many more technological innovations, projects, and business ventures for the future. People competent in project management skills and competencies will increasingly be needed. We need to make efforts to follow effective project management practices to reduce the amount of waste on poorly performing projects, invest more in human resources and communication to promote teamwork, and infuse technology quotient into the Project Management curriculum to keep up with the constant technological advancement.
Comments
Post a Comment